Fishing spring's first heat wave

After a winter that just wouldn't end, spring seems to be nearly over, at least as far as fishing is concerned. After a 10 day heat wave has warmed the water to the low to mid 60's (Fahrenheit), the fish are extremely finicky and unpredictable. Many of the fishermen I know are seeing the same thing, especially when it comes to pike and carp, some of the few species open at the present time.

I started off taking to of my kids to troll Lake St Francis for Pike on Sunday. Outside temperature reached in the upper 20's (Celsius), no wind, so seemingly a perfect outing. Unfortunately, the fish just weren't at their usual spring spots. I hit about 3 or 4 spots, multiple times each. We did manage a few pike, but not the size or numbers I was hoping for.

To make matters worse, I forgot my camera, so didn't shoot any fishing pics with the kids. To make matters even worse, inconsiderate jet skiers kept buzzing around us, nearly running over our lines a couple times. Add the swarms of gnats and high speed yachts throwing 3-4 foot waves at us, the pike opener was less than I had hoped for. Still, the kids had fun, and I got out of the office.

A couple days later, I headed out carping with a friend. The warming water should have throw them into a feeding frenzy by now, but again, the fishing was slow. Tired unsuccessfully using a couple flavours of boilies, eventually switched spots and finally caught one using corn.

Also got to test out my new 12 foot Daiwa black widow rods, performed well so far, but they take a bit of getting used to at that length. Got to mess around with my rod pod and bite alarms, and kept cool by spending some time in the water for the first time this year.

Finished off my fishing week by heading out pike fishing for the afternoon on Wednesday, with my friend Mike. Again, the fish weren't at the usual spots, but we ran around and found some sporadic bites, mainly while trolling. Caught about 20 pike in 3 hours or so, most under 4 lbs, but have some big followers and a nice one Mike caught.

Again, I got to test some new lures, namely, a Rapala Flat Rap FLR16 I picked up on special for $6.00 at Le Baron sport a few days ago. Looks like my work schedule will have me busy until the weekend, hope the change in weather will bring some more consistent fishing with it.